It's election season in the US and Instagram has change the way it recommends political content. On both Instagram and the new Competitor X Threads, this change will not affect what you see on accounts you already follow. But the platforms will not proactively recommend content about politics, which could limit users' ability to learn about political issues from people outside their existing circles. This is especially impactful as Instagram's algorithm shifts toward recommending more posts from accounts you don't follow, especially Reels.
While some people might welcome a respite from politics, others find the changes alarming, as social media is a key tool for community organizing and disseminating information about current events. Additionally, Instagram's definition of political content is a bit broad: It describes political content as anything “potentially related to things like laws, elections, or social issues.”
If these changes bother you, you can adjust your settings to override Instagram's political content filters.
Change Instagram Political Content Settings
If you don't want Instagram to filter political content from your feed, here are the steps to opt out of these changes:
- In the Instagram app, use the bottom navigation bar to click on your profile.
- Once you're on your profile page, you'll see a hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top right corner of your screen.
- You should now be on the “Settings & Activity” page. If you scroll to the center of the menu, you'll see a subheading called “What You See.” Three lines down, there's an option you can tap called “Content Preferences.”
- From there, there is a tab that says “Political Content.” Click that and you can toggle between viewing political content from people you don't follow or stopping viewing that content. If you don't want political content filtered from your feed, select “don't limit political content from people you don't follow.”
Currently, Threads doesn't have its own settings menu with these options, but if you change your preferences on Instagram, you should be moved to Threads, which is built into the app.
Image credits: instagram
Why Instagram is changing the way you view political content
Meta, parent of platforms like Instagram and Facebook, has constantly gotten into trouble when it comes to politics. These platforms have played a role intechnology/2021/dec/06/rohingya-sue-facebook-myanmar-genocide-us-uk-legal-action-social-media-violence” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener” data-mrf-link=”https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/06/rohingya-sue-facebook-myanmar-genocide-us-uk-legal-action-social-media-violence”> genocide in Myanmar and the spread of misinformation that preceded the January 6 attack on the Capitol. And then there was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a political consulting group hijacked the data of millions of Facebook users to help. donald trump Presidential campaign 2016. At Meta HQ, another US presidential election might simply mean that another public mishap is inevitable.
But these massive algorithmic changes have consequences: whether Meta likes it or not, this is the reality of social media platforms used by billions of people. Limiting political content will have a domino effect.
We don't yet know what type of content Instagram will ban and how that will affect creators, whose livelihood is affected by their ability to find new audiences. But at least Instagram will allow creators to check the status of their account, to know if their reach has been limited.
